The Fracture War
by Chridy
Summary: When Zarek Industrial blow up one of the USR's supply moons, the war that ensues threatens to plunge the galaxy into chaos. However, for one crew of mercenaries this is just another job, but as the war gathers momentum and the other corporations join the mad scramble for power and wealth, they soon find that there is more at stake than mere survival.
1. Prologue

Author's Note: In late 2014, I started playing Fractured Space whilst it was in Early Access. It's a great game but at the time there was no backstory of any kind. So I decided I'd have a go at making one of my own using the characters and ships from the game, adding more into the story as the game's development progresses.

This is my first published story, which is pretty cool, but I apologise if I make mistakes as I get the hang of writing proper stories. If you see anything you did or didn't like, let me know so that I can try to improve.

Thanks for reading!

* * *

Everyone says the war began when Zarek Industrial blew up Ganymede, one of United Space Research's supply depots. The corporations even said so in their statements, using it as the reason to officially declare war on each other and I admit it's a convincing theory as nothing says "screw you" quite like blowing up someone's moon. But it's bullshit. This war started like any other corporate deal; in a room somewhere on comfortable chairs with handshakes and smiles whilst the money flowed around them.

Of course it would never actually be called war in those meetings - that would imply they had some measure of responsibility - and sure, they may not have known the full cost of what they were doing but they damn well knew the consequences of their actions. And they won't stop now because to do so would be like admitting they were wrong or that they are weak, both inexcusable flaws in their minds, but the more compelling reason is that it's more profitable to keep it going. I guarantee that it will be over in a day as soon as it became unprofitable.

Why do I think this you ask? Well, centuries of greed, ambition and incompetence have meant that only the most ruthless companies survive and if any weakness is seen, it's quickly pounced on by competitors like sharks on a wounded whale, quickly and efficiently taking it apart and feasting on the juicy deals and contracts within. If anything gets the corporations fired up, it's the chance that a lot of money is going to come their way very soon.

It wasn't always like this, apparently, but the governments of centuries ago didn't deal with the corruption and dirty dealing because the fierce competition kept prices low. When the corporations began using and abusing their power more openly, there was a brief resistance from the politicians but it was too late, too many were in that any resistance was swiftly crushed. Politics merely became another arena where the corporations dealt with each other. This war can't be stopped by the galactic governments even if they wanted too, the corporations hold all the power.

Listen to me, going on about the corruption in the system like a raving conspiracy theorist when they're paying me too, irony at its finest. In my defence though, I'm being paid an actual wage for an actual job instead of a bribe, which is a very fine difference but one I cling to.

My name is Marie-Anne Moreau, and I am a mercenary currently working for Zarek Industrial as a captain in their defence fleet.

-][-

Zarek Industrial approached me a few weeks before the destruction of Ganymede with the job offer of a lifetime - get paid stupid amounts of money to do what I do best, captain a spaceship to protect their interests from other parties for as long as I was able, along with a few other benefits that come with working for a mega-corporation. I've been living on ships most of my life, piloting for half that time and captain of various ships for the other half. So you could say I know a thing or two about spaceships.

Makes the job easy right?

Yeah, that's what I thought too, which is why I accepted the offer before really thinking it through. Boy do I regret that.

At first it was pretty boring, just setting up my account with life insurance, full body health checks and a billion other boring little details that they felt necessary before I could be paid. When the bureaucrats finally decided my paperwork was in order, I was given a week in boot camp to meet my fellow officers and learn the basics of the ship I'd be commanding before being packed off to one of their small research stations on the ice planet Persephone II in the Hades IV system, located in the arse-end of civilisation, to learn and acclimatise to my new ship and crew.

Once we arrived, absolutely nothing of interest happened for six weeks. Naturally, we got bored. So we decided to supplement our cheap rations with proper food 'confiscated' or taken as payment from the few traders entering our system. We were good, but kept it low-key, never taking more than we thought we could get away with as we knew what could happen if Zarek found out about our little activities. But we weren't caught and when the war started no-one cared anymore, as long as we didn't attack Zarek ships.

-][-

We first heard of the attack on Ganymede whilst watching InsteNews when the first reports started coming in.

I think everyone remembers the moment they heard the news, and the statements by Zarek and the USR are etched into my mind forever not because they're any good, but because of what they meant. It meant that two of the largest corporations in the galaxy were at war and everyone without enormous power or distance from them was going to get sucked into the fight. Of course, working for Zarek meant that we were going to be the first dragged in, but at least we were being paid for the privilege and were unlikely to be on the front lines.

Despite what you may think, we weren't terrified of what horrors might be unleashed as the two titans clashed. We were terrified of the knock-on effect that would plunge the galaxy's economy into a spiral as resources were hoarded and prices were hiked by greedy merchants and the unlucky ones became unable to get their supplies. For the common people, the war meant starvation and poverty, not battles and trauma. Even we thought starvation was going to be our main enemy, not thinking that the corporations would do more than a light skirmish here and there whilst the real battles were fought in the boardroom.

How wrong we were.

The news broadcast hadn't even finished when our comms system was slammed with orders from command and other captains' messages pleading to know what was going on. Our orders were short and simple; protect the Hades IV system from intruders and destroy or capture any enemies of the corporation, which, naturally, was in another document sent separately.

So that was the job and although none of us really thought we were going to be involved in much more than a standoff or a chase, I still made sure we were prepared for battle because I wanted to make sure we did the job right, no matter what.

If there's one thing I'm proud of, it's the fact that I run the tightest ships around and have the best-trained crews, or if they aren't then I make damn sure they become the best. They may dislike me, hate me even, but if you're in a bad situation you need to be able to rely on your crew to make as few mistakes as possible, follow orders well and even use their initiative in do-or-die situations or when I'm unable to command them for whatever reason. That initiative also allows me to step back and focus on the bigger picture and plan accordingly.

In the brief time I'd been in command of them, I'd pushed my new crew to improve their already considerable skills further and drilled them to instinctively react to orders and commands. They didn't have the confidence or flexibility to act on their own initiative yet and their teamwork needed some, well, work, but they were getting there and I believed that with time and perhaps a little trial by fire, they would grow very quickly into a team.

So when the orders were quickly followed by information that an advance squadron of USR ships had Jumped to the system's edge and were en route to Persephone II and the Zarek research station on it, we just turned around and started speeding across the darkness of space. We were about to become their worst nightmare.

* * *

_Interstellar News, more commonly known as InsteNews, is a government funded and run news agency that broadcasts to every known inhabited planet in the galaxy._


	2. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This took me a lot longer than I thought it would take, especially as I wasn't happy with the first draft and rewrote a lot of it. Comments and criticism are welcome to help improve it further.

I also thought I'd take this opportunity to show you what the star system the story is set in looks like. Follow the link in my profile to my DA account for a picture showing the star and planets in the Hades system (not to scale of course!), but I couldn't fit in everything, so moons and other stuff aren't in there yet.

Thanks for reading!

* * *

Gregorii Durov, our pilot, performed his job perfectly and Jumped us right behind Persephone II's moon Cerberus without a problem, keeping us hidden from the USR fleet's sensors. After a little maneuvering we were ready to slingshot around the moon and ambush them. Surprise was our best chance at survival, so we had to use every advantage we could get.

The USR squadron must have arrived at the edge of the system hoping to remain undetected and get an opportunity to scan the system's defences, but the research station's detection system is surprisingly sophisticated and was able to report their arrival before they'd fully materialised. However, although we knew where they were, none of us knew how effective their sensors might be and we hid behind the moon as a precaution, using the station's sensors to track their progress. This also gave us time to plan what we were actually going to do when they around Persephone.

It wasn't long before the USR ships Jumped again, this time appearing in striking distance of Persephone II. However, we were fortunate enough that the moon was directly over the research station at that point in time and had prevented their Jump pilots from getting too close. They were going to have to cover the remaining distance by engine power alone, leaving them vulnerable to our ambush. Even better, they were in range of the satellite grid around the planet and were able to observe the squadron in detail, pinpointing where it would be so that we knew where to aim for.

The net result of all this was that we had relatively slow-moving targets completely unaware of our presence and moving too close together to provide covering fire without getting in each other's way. The only ship displaying any common sense and hanging back in support was a Sniper, who's captain seemed to know what they were doing, but as the other captains were morons it left him more vulnerable than such a good position should.

We all stopped a moment as a realisation struck.

A Sniper. That was a warship.

What was a warship doing here? Unless… unless the war is real. That we were now on on the front lines fighting for and against extremely powerful corporations with equally powerful weapons and ships.

This was not good. Very few of us had experience of space combat and only Dice Caplan, our tactical officer, had experience of this level of combat. I had never felt so insignificant as I did in those moments.

Gregorii sighed. "At least our deaths will be spectacular and quick."

I thought a riot was going to start then and realised that everyone was waiting for me to say something. I took a deep breath, thought quickly for something inspiring and said, "Yes they will, but we won't be dying today. Everyone, return to your stations. Remember, we are in a big ship of our own, a Hunter, something that they fear already. Let's remind them why that is."

The tension gripping the bridge fractured as everyone nodded and returned to their duties, but I could still see how tense they were under the surface. I looked over at Gregorii, who was already strapping himself back into his pilot's seat and fiddling with controls. After a moment, I heard a low thrumming echo through the ship as the engines rumbled into life and began pouring energy into the thrusters.

Satisfied, I turned to see Dice and my communications officer, Samuel Mosely, already standing at the table where a hologram of Persephone II and Cerberus was slowly spinning just above the surface.

"Let's get to work."

We started by pooling our knowledge, which unfortunately was very little. All we knew for certain was that the enemy squadron was composed of a Sniper, two Assassins and a Flagship. Beyond that, all we had was speculation and rumours.

Snipers are aptly named. Armed with extremely long-range weapons, there are numerous stories of USR Snipers bombarding and destroying ships and space stations from half a star system away. However, in close quarters their huge guns' limited traverse makes them easy pickings for more agile opponents.

Flagships hold a terrifying reputation for absorbing truly ridiculous levels of damage and still fighting on. Though they are slow and usually equipped with short-range weaponry, they can survive the enemy's onslaught long enough to get close and pound them into submission or just scare them into fleeing from their apparent invincibility.

The Assassins are much more mysterious. Known for cloaking devices that allow them to travel unseen until they launch their attack, they are notorious for preying on lone ships or running amok behind enemy lines, destroying everyone that might report them.

I was highly aware at that point of how unprepared we were. We were in a huge warship that was dangerous in its own right, but we had very little experience using it and none in a real combat situation. We'd all assumed we'd just make a show of being here and deter casual pirates and thieves. At most we'd have had to fight a small, poorly-armed ship, not the very well-armed ships with highly-trained crews facing us now, which unsettled me for some reason I couldn't put my finger on besides the obvious.

"Why are they here?" Samuel asked, voicing my unspoken thoughts.

"Good question," I said, "why are they sending such a powerful force to this backwater planet that has no strategic value and little mineral value?"

"Does it matter?" Dice asked.

"Why, yes," I replied.

"No, it doesn't. We need to focus on how to defeat them now or we won't be able to question their motives later".

She was right. There was nothing I could do now and getting distracted would get us killed, so I bent back over the table and returned my attention on the dots and lines now surrounding the slowly spinning spheres.

Dice's guidance, plus some useful knowledge from other officers and crew about what we were facing, allowed us to shape a plan by the time we'd reached the halfway point of our slingshot.

We were as happy with it as we could be, given the circumstances, so I called our chief engineer to the bridge to offer any insights on weakness in the enemy ships' designs to aim for once we got into range. He arrived a few minutes later with two nervous-looking labourers trailing behind him.

"Who are these, Goss?" I asked.

"Joissan and Xaru," he replied, as if that explained everything, "they once worked as labourers on a Flagship and thought you should know something." He stepped aside to let them speak.

"Go on," I prompted.

"Well, it's nothing much really," Joissan said, "we-"

"Only worked on the engines, we didn't see much," Xaru continued.

"That's right, but we noticed that-"

"There's only a thin steel wall between-"

"Its engines and Jump drive," Joissan finished. He seemed to shrink as we watched and added, "I told you it wasn't much, sorry we wasted your time."

Samuel stepped forward and put a reassuring hand on Joissan's shoulder, "No, no, you've been very helpful. Thank you."

"Wait," I said as they turned to leave. They looked at me, "a thin steel wall? How thin?"

"Er, about thirty millimeters, ma'am," Xaru said.

I turned to Dice. "Our guns can penetrate that easily, do you think…" I trailed off, but she was nodding as she turned the idea over in her head.

"Yes, that should suffice. And we don't need to change the plan much, just where we're aiming."

"Thank you gentlemen, you have been extremely helpful," I said to the two labourers.

"Oh, no problem."

"Thanks for bringing them Goss," I added, "anything you want to add?"

"No, I can't think of anything. We'll go back to our posts then, shall we?"

I nodded and they hurried out. Samuel and I turned back to the hologram to see Dice finish making the final adjustments. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best we had.

-][-

Our slingshot around the moon gave us incredible speed that allowed us to cut the engines almost completely and begin coasting towards the USR ships once we neared approximate sensor view. As we glided, we hoped that our radiators would cool quickly enough that we wouldn't have a noticeable heat signature and could approach the enemy completely unnoticed.

Fortunately, we were lucky enough that our plan worked long enough for us to cross the majority of the distance before they noticed us, at which point the Sniper immediately started slowing and turning to face us.

"Now," I said to the silent bridge.

Gregorii nodded and Goss replied with an affirmative from the engine room and seconds later a low rumbling echoed through the ship, shortly followed by a slight kick as Gregorii pushed the thrusters back to maximum.

We sped towards the Sniper and jinked sideways to avoid its first wild shot, Blinked to the side and forwards to avoid the second and our third Blink took us past him and on to the Flagship and Assassins, blissfully unaware of what was bearing down on them.

We started firing then. Most of the shots flew wide of the mark but a few smashed into the rear of the Flagship, exploding against the enormous engines. Another Blink and we were within our weapons' optimum range, allowing us to slow down and match the Flagship's speed.

"Fire everything!" I shouted, excitement and fear making me louder and higher-pitched.

A swarm of missiles streamed forwards whilst the cannons kept firing, pounding away at the Flagship. The first wave of missiles took a few seconds to reach their target and when they did, the explosions were brief but spectacular and the effect was immediate - half of the rear thrusters went out and the large central thruster started sputtering and flickering.

"Captain! The Assassins are gone!" I didn't know who called, but it didn't matter. What mattered now was that our time had become very limited.

I watched another stream of missiles speed forward accompanied by cannon fire. The impact was tremendous again and it was hard to believe that the Flagship could survive, but despite everything we had done to it, the ship was still powering forwards and no more thrusters went out.

I decided that we had been here long enough. The Assassins could be anywhere by now and were no doubt lining up to fire. Behind us the Sniper was finishing it's turn and sent another wild shot winging past us.

"Time's up," I said, "get us out of here Gregorii as soon as the next volley has launched."

"Yes, captain," he replied, distracted, his hands flying over the controls.

A high-pitched whine began to grow, emanating from the depths of the ship as the Jump drive started warming up. Seconds later, the last volley of missiles were launched. At the same time, space began warping around us as the Jump drive activated in earnest.

The enemy must have seen this as the Sniper took another shot and the Assassins decloaked right next to the Flagship, firing as they appeared. I watched the shots heading for us on the screens, the few seconds stretching into eternity. When I thought it was too late for us to escape, there was a familiar mental lurch as we Jumped.

-][-

A second later we appeared in orbit around Zeus IX and immediately tried to scan the battlezone and comm feeds to find out what was happening behind us. When the static finally cleared, we were stunned to see the Sniper turning away from a rapidly expanding cloud of wreckage that a minute before had been a Flagship and a pair of Assassins.

Before I continue, I need to explain a couple of things about Jump drives, the technological miracle that allow us to travel faster than light. Don't worry, I won't be going into much detail as I don't know anything about how they work, this is just a quick interruption to explain how the USR ships were destroyed for the non-spacefarers out there.

The first thing you should know is that Jump drives devour power like nothing else. They vary wildly in size and function, from the intrasystem Scarlett &amp; Kray Jump drives of most puddlejumpers, all the way up to the full-scale Jump drives used by warships, cargo haulers and merchant vessels to travel the galaxy. Our ship, a Zarek Industrial Hunter, has a second, much smaller and less power-hungry Jump drive designed for shorter and quicker jumps called a Blink drive, typically used in battle to get closer to the enemy or move unpredictably.

The second thing you should know is that Jump drives require enormous amounts of power to operate. A ship is fully operational using just 30 - 50% of its engine capacity, Jump drives require its full capacity and more, usually siphoning power away from other systems to meet its ravenous appetite.

Naturally, with that much power flowing through them they are incredibly volatile and even with all the safeguards the manufacturers put in place, it's sometimes not enough. Failures in active Jump drives are always catastrophic and depending on the size and power of the Jump drive the failures can range from merely annihilating the ship in a fiery explosion to tearing the fabric of spacetime.

Therefore, we're reasonably certain that the Flagship we'd crippled had tried to activate its Jump drive and subsequently exploded as the drive was too badly damaged to cope with the surge of power. The Assassins hadn't moved far enough away from it and were caught in the explosion, suffering major damage and getting their systems knocked out by the EMP emitted by the exploding Flagship.

We all watched in grim silence as the Sniper fled and the remains of its squadron fell towards Persephone's surface, painfully aware that those flaming shards could have been us if we'd Jumped half a second later, or if they had fired a second earlier, or if any of a million other things had gone wrong. But they hadn't and we were alive to fight another day. So when the fires had died out, we checked when the reinforcements were due (imminently, apparently), we celebrated as anyone else who'd survived near-death does - we got very drunk.

-][-

I woke up in my bunk the next morning with a pounding headache and a ringing in my ears. I lay there for a few moments to make sure my head wouldn't shatter when I got up, then swung my legs over the edge of the bunk and used the momentum to lift me up into a somewhat slumped sitting position.

"Oh God, I'm never drinking again," I vowed, clutching my head and grimacing at a spike of pain. "Lights. No! Arghh! Lights off! Off!"

The pain as the light stabbed into my eyes made me feel sick and I had to wait another few minutes before I could move again. This time though, I left the lights off and fumbled in the dark until I found my way into the washroom. Once there, with only one stubbed toe, I opened the little cupboard above the sink and scrunched my eyes shut as the small lights inside turned on. When my eyes eventually adjusted to the low light, I took something to help with the headache and gingerly started to wash myself and get dressed.

It only took another ten minutes or so to gather the courage to try turning the lights on again, but this time I kept them on and forced my eyes to get used to the light.

Thunder suddenly shook the room and made me stagger. It took me a few seconds to realise it was just someone pounding the door. I stomped across my room and wrenched the door open, growling something vaguely threatening as I did.

Samuel just looked at me for a moment before holding up a hand with a couple of little pills. "Here," he said gently, "these will help with the hangover."

"What are they?" I asked, in no mood to be pitied.

"Nothing serious, they just help get rid of the headache and fuzziness."

"What's in them?"

"It's a family recipe, if I told you I'd have to kill you." He said grinning, almost like he wasn't hungover. Bastard.

"Uh-huh," I grunted sarcastically.

"Okay, too early for jokes I see. They're just hangover cures from my family's pharmacy. They're better than anything else you'll find on the market, I promise you that."

He looked so earnest I just didn't have the heart or willpower to turn him down. After I took them, he said, "captain, we need you on the bridge as soon as you're able."

"Not just here to help me through this tough time then, eh?" I sighed, "Fine, I'll be there in a minute when the ringing in my head's faded a bit."

"No, captain, we need you now."

I looked at him properly then, forcing my eyes to focus as I heard the sharp tone in his voice. He sounded almost scared, but of what? That was when I noticed the red light flashing behind him and that the ringing I could hear wasn't in my head, it was the klaxons sounding the alarm.

"What the hell's going on?" I demanded.

"Remember the Sniper we ran off yesterday?" I nodded. "It's back, and it's brought a couple of friends."

"Damn. Snipers too?" He nodded. "Dammit. Where are they now? No, hang on, tell me on the way." I ducked back into my room and pulled my boots on before hurrying towards the bridge, Samuel following close behind me.

"They were just passing Atlas when I came to get you. We think they've spotted us because they're headed straight for us. They'll be in effective range in about five minutes."

"Fantastic," I muttered. "Why aren't we moving?"

"Goss's team is getting the Jump drive primed and the engines warmed up, but they're as ill as you - the engineers that is, not the engines - and I don't have enough cures for everybody, so they're going a bit slower than usual."

"What about the skeleton crew? Why didn't they warn us earlier or better yet, get us going?"

"They were found this morning passed out in the cafeteria."

"Great. If we survive this, there's going to be a talk that no-one will like. What about Gregorii? Is he ready to fly us out of here?"

"Yes, captain, he's at his station ready to Jump us out as soon as possible." He then added quietly, "I offered him one of my cures, but he's got the constitution of an elephant or something as he says he hasn't got a hangover. The weird thing is, I think he's telling the truth."

"Yeah, he's always been a good drinker."

I didn't have time to say anything else as we arrived at the bridge. Samuel went to find me some coffee whilst I sank into my chair in the centre of the room, noting with some pride that everyone was doing their jobs quickly and efficiently without any sign of panic, although they were all clearly nervous. As I looked around the bridge, I noticed that even the normally straight-laced Dice was looking worse for wear after the previous night. As I saw her, an ensign stopped and leant on the table beside her, grinning. She glared at him and muttered something that made him go very pale and scurry away.

I continued my scan of the bridge but nothing leapt out at me as particularly urgent or requiring my input, so I leant back in the chair and picked up my pen to keep my fingers busy. After a few moments, Samuel returned and offered something that smelled vaguely like coffee. "Why is there a golf club in the ceiling?" I asked.

He looked up. "Huh, I have no idea," he said, looking at the mangled remains of the golf club half buried in the ceiling. His name was called then, so he then pushed the mug into my hand and headed for the comms room.

I slowly sat up, took a sip of the not-quite-coffee and asked for an update to our situation.

"Engines are online and I'll be ready to fire up the Jump drive in a couple of minutes," Goss reported from the engine room.

"Comms are up but we've not heard anything from Zarek since yesterday. I've sent out a distress signal and tried to contact the reinforcements, but we've got nothing back yet." Sam called from the comms room.

"I can fly this bucket, but we're not going anywhere fast until we get that Jump drive on," Gregorii said. "If we could Blink I could get us out of here, but we don't even have that."

"We're working on it alright?" Goss said hotly.

"The important thing is," Dice interjected, holding an ice pack to her head, "we have defences and some movement, which we can use if necessary."

"I think moving is kind of necessary, Dice," Gregorii drawled.

Dice glared at him, "Don't call me that, Durov." He looked away but couldn't hide the grin visible through his beard.

"Alright Gregorii, get us facing them. No sense making ourselves a bigger target than necessary."

"Yes, captain." He began flicking switches and pressing buttons, producing a rumble and a slight shuddering as the ship started moving.

"As soon as you can, Jump us out of here." He nodded. "Di- sorry, Caplan, work out something to get us out of here alive, or failing that, taking them down with us." She nodded, paling at the sudden movement, and started working.

"Goss," I called.

"Yeah?"

"How long until the Jump drive's ready?"

"Another couple of minutes captain."

"You said that a minute ago, get it done."

"Yes, captain." He managed to hide the frustration well, I barely heard it.

"Captain!" Someone shouted, "they've opened fire!"

"Everybody brace for impact!" I yelled into the PA as the klaxons changed from a steady ringing to a piercing wail.

Three shots were fired, only one missed. The other two smashed into our ship with such incredible force that we felt a tremor in the bridge and heard the screech of tortured metal echoing through the ship. For several seconds we feared the ship was going to tear itself apart, but the screeches quickly faded and left behind a deafening silence.

"Is everyone alright?" I asked quietly. There was a mumbled chorus in the affirmative and nodding heads all round. I turned on the PA and asked for a status report.

"We've got a few wounded and engine one is on fire, we're shutting it down and sealing it off now but we don't know how far the fire will spread," an unfamiliar voice said.

"How were the engines hit, I thought we were facing them? Nevermind, where's Goss? And can we use the Jump drive?"

The engineer on the other end sounded terrified but managed to stammer out, "One of the shots must have got lucky and hit further back and, er, Goss has been taken to the infirmary, he's hurt pretty bad. As for the Jump drive, well, it's not damaged and we can use it, but only for a short time."

"Why?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"We'd have to shut down everything to power it, including life support," he said nervously.

I thought for a moment, suddenly very aware that everyone was watching me. I'd heard of ships that had survived turning off everything to make a Jump, but it was always dangerous and not everyone survived. I wasn't sure how well we would do. I looked at the main screen and saw the USR ships moving into a firing line. This was an execution, not a battle, we had no choice but to run.

"Get it ready. When I give the order, we'll fire everything we have and then Jump. It should distract them long enough for us to escape. Gregorii will get us as far as he can. We'll just have to hope it's enough. "

"Yes, captain," the engineer replied in a small voice.

Dice stepped forward, "why don't we just abandon ship? We can't win this fight."

I looked her in the eyes. "Because we can survive this. A few seconds without life support won't kill us, but those ships will. I'm pretty sure they're gunning for revenge and if we take the escape pods now they may still kill us all. If they don't, we'll instead be stranded here with nowhere to go as this ship, its supplies and the Zarek outpost will be destroyed." She frowned and I could see the rest of the crew weren't happy either. "Look, we killed three USR ships yesterday. Even if one of those Snipers wasn't part of that squadron, we'd have a kill order on us now. Besides, this is war and I don't think either side are too bothered with taking prisoners. But, if anyone wants to take their chances in a pod, that's fine by me. I won't think any lesser of you for it but you'd better hurry as we don't have much time."

No-one moved.

"OK then, let's do this."

Everyone seemed to be in shock, but they were professional enough to continue their jobs. I got a strange sense of pride from that fact.

"Captain!" I jumped and looked around the room trying to find the person calling, desperately hoping it wasn't our death knell. "Captain!" I looked behind me to see Samuel squeezing through the crew. "Captain!" He called.

"What is it?" I asked.

"They're hailing us, do you want to answer?" He hid it well, but I could tell he was worried. So I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile and asked him to put it on the main screen.

The man that appeared on the screen looked at us as if he was examining something on a dissection table. He appeared to be a man approaching middle age with grey only starting to grace his jet black hair and beard, but in reality I knew he was in his fifties, perhaps even older. His eyes were dark and brooding, hiding a cold and iron-hard soul. His wrinkled and weathered face didn't make him look old, it just made him look tough. I knew this person as Evan Sterling, a dangerous man who haunted some of my worst nightmares. Everyone else knew him as the notorious pirate, renegade and mercenary, Sterling Blackmane.

Yeah, not the most imaginative name but he makes it work.

When he saw me, a smug little smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Why hello little Mary, what a surprise to see you here," he said.

"Evan, what's an old renegade like you doing in a USR ship?" I said with false cheer, "it barely looks stolen."

"Ha! That's a good one but no, this actually isn't stolen. I'll have you know that I am now Captain Sterling of the USR First Exploratory Fleet."

"Your mother would be so proud if she was alive to see you now. How did she die again? Suddenly in her sleep wasn't it?"

"Oh, that's a low blow, even for you Mary." That damn smirk was still there, it was infuriating how calm he was. "What's a good little captain like you doing all the way out here, away from all the fighting? Are you getting soft in your old age?"

"You're one to talk," I retorted, "You're finally starting to show your age."

He tsked. "Now you're just getting petty." He turned to look at someone off-screen and frowned at whatever they were saying. When he turned back to us, he looked annoyed and sighed but the smirk quickly returned. "It seems we're on a schedule, I'm going to have to keep this short. We are ready to fire, your ship is crippled and you have nowhere to go. We accept your surrender."

I will admit that at that moment I did consider ignoring my mighty speech and surrendering to save myself. But as I looked at him, I remembered what his crew had been subjected to during my last encounter with him and shuddered at the thought of what prisoners might go through. So I gave the most eloquent reply I could think of, "Fuck your surrender."

Finally his smirk vanished as he stared at me. I tried not to flinch under that gaze and glared back.

"You've got spirit, I'll give you that, but it won't save you." He turned away slightly and said to someone offscreen, "destroy them."

Fortunately, I've seen his negotiation skills first-hand, which is why as soon as he looked away I gave the signal to start our escape before he'd finished giving his order.

Time seemed to slow then.

I saw Evan look at us in surprise. I saw Gregorii's hands fly over the controls but the ship moved so slowly I feared we weren't moving at all. I saw the shots exploding from the ends of his ship's guns and come for us like miniature stars. The seconds stretched out as the twin balls of fire and plasma came screaming towards us until eventually, impact.

Gregorii's quick reactions saved us from immediate death as the shots smashed into and through our armour, but they didn't hit anything vital and destroy us, yet. I thought I heard a growing whine join the background noise, but I didn't have time to listen as I was shouting orders for damage control whilst Gregorii began enacting the next stage of our plan.

The two Snipers accompanying Evan then fired, hammering into us seconds later but by then we were starting to gather speed and avoided fiery death yet again, although I wasn't sure how much longer we could survive.

Then a voice cut through the din, screeching over the PA system, "the Jump drive's damaged! It's going to blow! Abandon ship! Abandon sh-"

There was a short, sharp pain, then everything just faded away.


End file.
